C&O

Rode w/ Anna on her bike commute to work on the C&O...
cleaned my bike w/ pesticide sprayer before putting it in my car... i think this will become a rutine thing for me... saves time in the long run.

bucket of soapy water and sprayer...found gloves on a stick near to where i parked... i'm in the market for some gloves but i decided to keep my distance from these... probably on a stick for a reason.

bleeding brakes

I feel like more of a man now that I bled my own brakes… its been 3 years since I originally purchased my first pair of hydraulic disk brakes and this was the first time they have been bled … I noticed that I had some air bubbles in there long ago but put off fixing the problem for fear that I was going to mess something up.

it ended up not being too hard… it helped a lot to have this video to watch…


in anticipation of bleeding my brakes in the future I was shopping for some more DOT 5.1 brake fluid.

I found that…

you can buy the larger container for under $10 (500ml) or the small one avid sells costs $16 (120ml)… Pictured is the 60 ml avid brake fluid that came w/ the bleed kit and the motul 500ml brake fluid that I ordered.

Battlefield Earth riding shoes

I got some winter riding shoes… I just put them on for the first time… I like how they feel and I like how they look too…

they look like John Travolta’s boots in the movie Battlefield Earth.
i will post results of how they perform in the cold.

pants

Did some mtn biking today… it was drizzly so I wore my rain pants… I am shopping for new pants with a reinforced saddle area.

And some waterproof gloves so I don’t need to use curb-side ditch plastic bags.

bunny hops, wheelies, and Crazy Train

It was really bugging me when I first rode my new Scott that w/ the longer chainstays 17.3” (which is still short for a 29er) compared to 16.7” of my last bike (which wasn't a 29er) made doing wheelie and bunny hops way harder. Anyone who rides with me a lot knows just how important these two things are to me… without them I feel inadequate.

I the search for a solution to my problem I messed around with my stem lengths and height… I managed to find a position that let me keep my bunny hops and wheelies.

My handlebars are about 1” higher and positioned 1” closer to me... feels a bit strange but I am getting used to it.

Also…

I joined Anna @ another Compu-trainer class over @ Kelly Acres… and improved my 15 min tt from 298watt avg to a 331watt avg... the reason for my improvement is completely linked to the fact that Crazy Train was playing this time and it wasn’t last time.

put together

built up my scott 29er frame... still making fine tuned ajustments

Scott

Riding for Scott in 2010… recently received 29er frame and extras…


Should have the frame built up shortly… looking forward to testing it out.